MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A woman said her daughter got jumped at Whitehaven High School, and she is not happy with how the school handled things.
It happened late Wednesday morning.
“She comes around, you know, comes around me and saying, ‘Fight me. Fight me,'” said junior Tatunia Harris.
She said the next thing she knew, a girl was pulling her hair and slamming her head into the wall. The violence left her with patches of hair ripped out and a bruised eye.
“Her head was hurting. Her face was swollen. I just don’t like it,” said Tatunia’s mother, Denise Harris.
But what Harris likes least, is how she found out her daughter had been hurt. Her cousin called.
“Said that Tatunia was getting jumped. That I need to hurry up and come there,” Harris said.
Then, she got a Facebook message from someone else saying the same thing.
She said the school did not call her until 30 to 45 minutes after it happened when she was already pulling up to the high school.
“They said the reason that they didn’t call me [was] because they didn’t want to get me confused. They wanted to investigate first,” Harris said
She said she took Tatunia to the hospital to get checked out, and everything was okay.
The school reportedly suspended multiple students, including Tatunia for being involved in the scuffle.
The incident report notes that the girls were in an argument before the girl followed Tatunia and got physical.
Tatunia’s friend, Tat’anya Jackson, said she was also suspended for trying to call Harris after the incident happened.
Harris said her daughter told a teacher last week that the girl was picking on her.
She thinks, all around, the school handled the situation the wrong way.
“It kind of hurt me, because I got suspended and I never got suspended before, never got in trouble at school. I’m a good student,” Tatunia said.
Shelby County Schools said it was not aware of claims of bullying, but both girls involved in the fight have been disciplined.
